The Festival d'Avignon, a member of Syndeac (the national union of arts and cultural enterprises), is fully mobilised in calling for a moratorium on the cuts announced for 2026, and for defending culture's place at 1% of the state budget by 2027.
Every summer, for almost 80 years, the Festival d'Avignon has been able to offer the public a rich programme of new work in theatre, dance and circus, thanks to its partnerships with numerous organisations across the whole country — subsidised and accredited venues, national theatres, and companies.
Weakening this national ecosystem means weakening the conditions under which these productions are presented at the festival, and despite the visibility and public success they enjoy, it also means reducing their ability to be widely distributed throughout France, owing to venues lacking sufficient means to host them.
Art and culture are structuring components of society; performing arts festivals and venues create jobs and economic activity, increase the appeal of a region, carry out an educational and social cohesion mission, and their auditoriums are full.
The Festival d'Avignon is an agora, and champions dissent and complexity as sources of richness in thought. As numerous elected officials and future presidential candidates come to take part in the debates and meetings organised here, the Festival reaffirms to them its founding conviction: culture must carry real weight within a strong, emancipatory and civic vision for society.
"Culture everywhere, 1% mandatory" a campaign by Syndeac
Sign the petition
Letter to the President of the Republic
12 July 2026 – Cour d'honneur du palais des Papes – 80th Festival d'Avignon
Mr President,
We, the artists gathered in Avignon, are addressing you today on behalf of theatre, dance, circus, music, puppetry and performance art, which have for several months now been subjected to attacks of unprecedented severity.
Mr President, at a time when we are facing a powerful reactionary offensive, the fragmentation of public debate, and a growing distrust of institutions, we affirm that weakening the public service of art and culture would be a historic mistake. The repeated budget cuts, and those now being announced, compel us to cry out, such is the urgency.
Mr President, cultural policy cannot be reduced to accounting decisions. A budget is a means, not a substitute for a political vision. We firmly believe that any public policy worthy of the name must begin by defining what it seeks to make possible.
Mr President, culture today accounts for no more than 0.7% of the state budget — just €14 per inhabitant per year for art and culture. How can we accept that such trifling savings could, within a matter of months, undo what decades of cultural policy have patiently built, and destroy with such violence the symbolic spaces that allow a society to reflect on itself through imagination, poetry and fiction?
Mr President, cancelled productions, seasons cut short at the last minute, artistic, technical and administrative teams left precarious and exhausted, venues forced to abandon their missions… Is this the landscape of ruin you wish to leave behind?
Mr President, in a year's time you will reach the end of your two terms in the highest office of the state. During the health crisis, through the "année blanche" scheme, you managed to prevent the world of culture from foundering; it is now up to you to see that gesture through to the end.
Mr President, as you know, the public service of art and culture is no more a privilege granted to artists than hospitals are to healthcare workers, or schools to those who teach in them. It is a common good that protects our lives from being reduced to purely economic value, nourishes critical thinking, and keeps dissent alive — the very condition of democracy itself.
Mr President, you have often observed that the mark left by great women and men in politics is also measured by the cultural legacy they leave behind. The time has come to choose which side of history you wish to stand on. Do not be the one who destroyed it all.
Mr President, the urgency of the situation compels us to ask you to take the necessary decisions without delay: to immediately cancel these new budget cuts, to open a genuine national debate on the future of the public service of art and culture, and to commit to progressively raising the resources devoted to it to at least 1% of the state budget — so as to enable artistic teams to regain the conditions for creative independence, venues to provide lasting support to artists and their works, and everyone to enjoy equal access to art and culture throughout the country.
Mr President, what is at stake is not only the future of a profession, but that of a certain idea of the Republic. The power to act lies with you, and with you alone.